Divine Healing

Healing Is The Perfect Will Of God, Applied By The Spirit

Jesus reveals perfectly the will of God when He says "Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me), to do thy will, O God" (Hebrews 10:7). That was the reason for His coming ... to do God's will. Jesus tells us, in John 6:38, "For I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me."

The only time He was ever asked whether it was God's will for healing, Christ replied that it was. This is recorded in Mark 1:40-41, "And there came a leper to Him, beseeching Him, and kneeling down to Him, and saying unto Him, 'If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.' And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth His hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, 'I will; be thou clean.'"

Jesus not only healed the sick Himself, He also taught that all believers would lay hands on the sick and they would recover. Mark 16:17-18, "And these signs shall follow them that believe: in My name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."

With this background laid, remember that the Lord does not change and does not have respect of persons. Malachi 3:6 tells us, "For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." Romans 2:11 tells us, "For there is no respect of persons with God." So if you are one of Jesus' followers, and Jesus said that His followers can heal the sick, guess what? You can heal the sick through the power of God!

Sickness Is An Enemy Of God's Will

We have seen that God continues to do today what He did in the bible. And in the bible, there were many times where God healed people ... bodies were made well. In fact, sickness is the exception and God's general rule is healing. The bible shows healing for all.

Believers need to get rid of guilty fear when they come to the subject of healing. They should do this through faith in a loving Father, rather than fear of One who puts cancer on them to discipline them!

Two of our friends have a child who has difficulties in obedience. One day when he refused to eat prunes with his dessert, Mum and Dad sent him up to his bedroom in disgrace for not eating the fruit, with the threat, "God will punish naughty boys." Imagine their dismay, when a short time later, a terrible electric storm hit the house. They crept up stairs, only to find their son in front of the window, gazing up at the flashing thunder and lightning. He was heard to remark aloud: "God, such a fuss about two prunes!" This story illustrates that our orientation affects how we perceive things. If we see sickness, we can often find a sin to "link" it back to, even though that link exists only in our imagination. In the vast majority of the cases, God does not want to make you sick to punish you, He wants you to be well and healthy.

In this lesson, we show that God positively is concerned in fighting sickness in order to set His people free and merely using it to threaten the disobedient! Let us first establish the emphasis that sickness is an enemy of God's will to make people whole. God's will in the Garden of Eden was to have them healthy and happy, and Heaven will not contain sickness.

God's Will Is Wholeness For Each Believer Today!

God wants us to remain whole (1 Thessalonians 5:24-25). Jesus died not only to save your soul, but to redeem your body from the power of the devil (Acts 10:38 and 1 John 3:8). In John 10:10, the Lord Jesus Himself stated, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

Sickness is not "abundant life!" God offers abundant life to us in both the Old and New Covenants. God offers "material prosperity" to His obedient servants (Joshua 1:5-9). In this connection however, we need to make a few observations:  

First, avoid the motive of simply serving God for what you get out of Him, even though God does promise years of pleasure to those serving Him in truth (Job 36:11).

Second, Satan was allowed to test Job to show he was not serving God merely for these benefits. When Job passed this test, and showed that he served God simply out of pure love, Job was healed and later died a healthy and wealthy man. Look at what the bible says about Job in Job 42, verses 10, 12, 16-17:  

* And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

* So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.

* After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations.

* So Job died, being old and full of days.

Third, David teaches the same truth in the Psalms. Psalms 1:1,3 tells us, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful ... he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

Finally, Jesus made the same promise in the New Testament to every sincere seeker. He said, in Matthew 7:11, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?"

Therefore, our first priority is not to merely seek healing, but to seek God's kingdom and the blessing of others, as per Matthew 6:33. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

God Promises Bodily Healing For The Obedient

God promises 'bodily healing' for the obedient. God desires to give us the gift of health. It is God's nature to bring healing and to be One Who takes care of His servants. Exodus 15:26 tells us, "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee."

Psalm 91 has a lot to say about God taking care of His own. Look at verses 2, 3, 5-7, 9-11 and 15: "I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust." "Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence." "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee." "Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." "He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him."